Welt hold-down



p 1947. c. w. BAKER WELT HOLD-DOWN Filed June .12, 1946 r 0 l n 9 U m Cora/in WBaA'e f Patented Sept. 30, 1947 WELT HOLD-DOWN Corwin W. Baker, Stoneham, Mass, assignor to United Shoe Machinery Corporation, Flemington, N. J., a corporation of New Jersey Application June 12, 1946, Serial No. 676,253

Claims.

This invention relates to welt holddowns, the

function of which is to press the welt of a welted shoe against the margin of an outsole in the operation of cement-attaching the outsole to the welt.

United States Letters Patent No. 2,074,834, granted March 23, 1937, upon an application filed in the name of Sidney J. Finn, discloses a welt holddown which has proved satisfactory under commercial shoe factory conditions in attaching soles to shoes with pyroxylin cement.

Recently new types of cement having characteristics different from those of pyroxylin cement have come into use for sole attaching. One of the characteristics of the newer types of cement is that considerably more pressure is required to produce a satisfactory bond than is needed when pyroxylin cement is used. Consequently, the welt holddown must be capable of sustaining, without collapsing, a higher degree of pressure than was formerly employed but must still be sufficiently flexible to enable it to be conformed easily to the contour of the shoe being operated upon.

The object of the present invention is to provide a simple, practical welt holddown capable of sustaining quite heavy pressure exerted in the direction of the height of a shoe upon which the holddown is being used, without substantial sacrifice of transverse flexibility.

This object is accomplished by the embedment in a flexible welt engaging member adapted to be fitted about the periphery of a shoe of a zigzag strip of supporting material so arranged that the sole attaching pressure is applied to it edgewise, in which direction it will sustain heavy pressure Without collapsing.

The supporting strip may consist of strong sheet material, such as a band of metal or plastic, which is substantially incompressible in its own plane but is sufficiently flexible in directions normal to its plane to conform readily to the outlines of shoes of various sizes and shapes. The said strip may be foraminous, in order that the rubber or rubber-like material from which the welt engaging member is ordinarily molded may flow through the openings in the strip and anchor'it securely in place and, although the openings through the sheet material may be provided otherwise, it is convenient and satisfactory to employ a woven wire fabric, which has the advantage of being capable of distortion in its own plane so that the holddown may conform to the welts of shoes of different vertical contours.

Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent in the following detailed description of an embodiment thereof in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a plan View of a portion of a sole attaching apparatus including a welt holddown;

Fig. 2 is an angular view of the flexible, welt engaging, holddown member;

Fig. 3 is a sectional view on the line III-III of Fig. 1, illustrating the manner in which the holddown is applied to a shoe, and

Fig. 4 is an angular view of a fragment of the pressure supporting strip embedded in the holddown member, the broken lines indicating the outline of said member.

The details of construction of the conventional apparatus for supporting a welt holddown above the pad box of a sole attaching machine are fully disclosed in Letters Patent No. 2,074,834, mentioned above, to which patent reference may be had for a description of such details. Inasmuch as the present invention relates only to the welt engaging member per se it is sufficient to say that this member, indicated by the reference numeral I il in the accompanying drawings, may be substi- I tuted for the band 26 shown and described in the patent.

According to the present invention the band or welt engaging member ID may be made of any firm rubber compound or rubber-like material sufliciently flexible to permit it to conform to the periphery of a shoe and will be so formed that it can enter and fit snugly in the welt crease of the shoe.

In order to sustain the very heaw vertical pressure which must often be exerted on the welt ii of the shoe l4 when, for example, an outsole I6 is being attached to the shoe by cement of the pressure responsive type, a zigzag supporting strip IS, the transverse elements of which extend heightwise of the shoe, is embedded in the welt engaging member ID when the latter is molded. This zigzag strip may consist of any suitable strong sheet material such as a band or ribbon of sheet metal or sheet plastic which is substantially incompressible and resistant to collapse under pressure applied in its own plane but is sufficiently flexible in directions normal to its plane to conform readily to the various shapes which the member I U is required to assume when it is fitted to the outlines of shoes of various sizes and shapes.

In order to effect a secure bond between the strip l8 and the holddown band [0 in which it is embedded the sheet material of the strip I8 is preferably foraminous, so the molded compound of which the band [0 is made may flow through the openings in the strip and prevent the latter from becoming displaced. One satisfactory material for this purpose is a fairly closely woven wire fabric, the vertical wires at least of which are rather stifi. When a strip of such material is bent into a zigzag form, as shown in Fig. 4, its resistance to crushing by force applied vertically is very great while its flexibility in horizohtal directions is adequate "to permit'the holddown band ID in which it is embedded to conform readily to the shoe being operated upon. The same is true of the unperforated zigzag supporting strip shown in Figs. 2 and 3, and the accordion-like form of all of these strips also perm-its sufiicieii-t vertical flexing of the strips as a "whole to permit the band to conform to the welts or shoes having difierent vertical contours. This vertical conformability is enhanced in the case of the woven wire strip because the woven wire'rabric is capable of some distortion in its own plane by a slight amount of slippage of the wires upon each other.

'tRi-vete'd to the band In are lugs 20 corresponding to the lugs 68 of the apparatus illustrated in the above-mentioned patent .and thin metal strips '22 corresponding to the trips 42 in the patented apparatus. These lu'gs and strips serve to mount the ;holddown band in the sole attaching machine in exactly the same manner as described :in'the patent and constitute no part of the present invention. 7

The improved welt holddown disclosed herein is capable of sustaining and transmitting a much greater amount of vertically applied pressure without being perceptibly crushed down than are the all rubber or rubber-like holddowns hereto- .fore used, without the sacrifice of any of the desirable characteristics of such holddowns such,

4 for example, as ability to conform closely and fit snugly into the welt crease of a shoe and freedom from danger of marring the appearance of the shoe by scarring or making pressure marks thereon.

Having described the invention, what is claimed as new and desired to be secured by Letters Pate'n'tis'i "'1. A welt holddown comprising a flexible welt engaging member adapted to extend about the periphery of a shoe, and a zigzag metallic supporting-element embedded in said member.

2. A welt holddown comprising a flexible welt en aging member adapted to extend about the periphery of a shoe, and a zigzag, foraminous, "metallic supporting element embedded in said 'member.

3. A welt holddown comprising a flexible welt engaging member adapted to extend about the periphery of a shoe, and a zigzag Woven wire supporting element embedded in said member.

i. A welt holddown comprising a flexible welt engaging member adapted to extend about the periphery of a shoe, and a strip of compression 

